Head of Engineering

Head of Engineering

We are looking for a Head of Engineering to join our team. The Head of Engineering will be responsible for helping us continue to grow and manage a best-in-industry engineering department, ensuring high performance and consistent processes across the company. You will help set the standards for technical work within the studio and take responsibility for developing the skill sets of the programming teams to meet the vision and strategic goals for our products. Possessing a robust knowledge of various game technologies, the successful candidate will also be responsible for selecting and promoting appropriate technologies and best-practices within the studio.

Will you be part of our next adventure?

Responsibilities:

• Hire, coach, mentor and manage the performance of engineering teams, leaders, and individual employees throughout their careers at Playful.
• Working closely with the other department heads, you will help manage development process and identify the engineering priorities that ensure each game is being built with a productive methodology and solid coding practices - including technical briefs, code reviews, keeping in mind long term quality and future code sharing between projects.
• Identify technical risks on projects and help teams develop contingency plans to address these risks.
• Maintain regular internal engineering communications, and help ensure a healthy, happy team atmosphere and morale across the entire department.
• Interface with design and art directors to identify new technical trends in the gaming industry and adapt to quickly implement features which are key to improving and enhancing our games.
• Facilitate communication both within and across disciplines.
• Demonstrate exceptional leadership, charisma, enthusiasm, and commitment to Playful’s vision, mission, and values.
• Manage the performance of the programming team staff and manage direct reports as a highly effective “leader of leaders.”
• Take responsibility for recruitment, on-boarding, development and professional training of the programming staff.
• Ensure each Lead Programmer defines and maintains clear goals and growth objectives for each of their team members.
• Continuously propose solutions to improve the development of projects within the studio.
• Identify and promote the application of technical best practices within the studio.
• Facilitate and encourage the sharing of technical knowledge and code between projects.
• Coordinate with Executive team and disseminate information to engineering teams.
• Work with producers to ensure adequate staff on each game team.
• Assist with improving production processes from an engineering perspective and eliminating roadblocks to game production. 
• Work with each games’ directors to ensure consistency and that the game is being built with the right methodology and best coding practices. 
• Provide consultation and expert advice to Executive leadership team when making strategic business decisions. 
• Assist hands-on when needed during tight deadlines. 
• Surface engineering concerns to Executive team. 
• Manage IT department, assisting when needed with guiding strategic initiatives and prioritization. Keep Executive team up to date on IT happenings. 

What will help you be successful in this role? 

• 15+ years of experience in a high- level leadership role within the video game industry.
• Excellent leadership and communication skills; ability to motivate, influence, and inspire.
• Direct engineering knowledge and experience with all aspects of game development and engineering, including client/server technologies and network architecture, rendering, UI/UX, Audio, localization, QA/test, and all other aspects of production.
• Experience working on AAA titles and next gen console games.
• A desire to continuously learn new technologies, new methodologies, and keep up with the latest innovations in our industry.